22/04/2006
NEWS STORY
Sam Michael, Technical Director, WilliamsF1: "It was obviously a close session. Mark made it through to the third segment and did the best job possible. Unfortunately for Nico, he just missed out on the third segment even though he was only a couple of tenths off the top five. After Nico's accident this morning, the mechanics did a good job changing his chassis by putting his engine into the T-car. Nico's car will be repaired to provide the spare car for tomorrow. Now we're looking to the race to see what strategy everybody is on and what we can achieve."
Mark Webber: "Qualifying was pretty interesting today and, as always, it was pretty fraught in the first two sessions. We managed to get into the last session and although I was fifth, it was very, very tight time-wise. The last session was pretty tricky for us, much as it was in Melbourne, so it will be interesting to see how the strategy will unfold, but the race will be interesting."
Nico Rosberg: "I didn't know what to expect from qualifying today because this morning it didn't go too well for me. I had a crash at the end of the session but prior to the accident, I didn't feel the set-up of my car was quite right. I must say thanks to the mechanics who managed to get the T-car ready for me in time for qualifying. When we got into Q2, it was difficult as the balance of my car had become a bit worse and I made two mistakes going wide, which wasted some valuable tenths The important outcome is that my final time today is not too bad because the pack was bunched quite tightly."
Simon Corbyn, Head of F1 Race Engineering, Cosworth Ltd: "There was no damage to the engine as a result of Nico's incident in morning practice and it was therefore transferred to the spare car for Qualifying. Cosworth had no problems and both drivers did a good job of optimising available engine performance throughout today's sessions."